Pump Resistance?

Hello all. My original post here was thinking that maybe my supply was
dwindling, but I think that I am perhaps becoming resistant to the
breastpump. DS is almost seven months old and I have been back to work
since he was 12 weeks. I had one decrease in my pump output, and it is
happening again.

I was originally able to pump at least 12 -15 oz per day and that was
what he's being fed at daycare. For the last week or so I am lucky to
get 9 oz per day pumping.

I do not want to have to start supplementing him during the day while I
am at work, but my freezer stock is not that great.

Anyone had similar situations or have any thoughts?

I do not want to have to start supplementing him during the day while I
am at work, but my freezer stock is not that great.

Anyone had similar situations or have any thoughts?

I've not had a similar situation, partly because I only ever worked part
time, and also, because during that time, I almost always pumped in the
morning before going to work. So that is my first suggestion pump around 8am
in the morning, this might mean as soon as you get to work, rather than
waiting until 3hrs after you get to work. Or it might be the last thing you
do before you leave.

The other thing to do is try and juggle feeding times, is there anyway he
can get one less bottle at daycare? This might mean feeding him as soon as
you collect him, rather than waiting until you get home. Or maybe getting
there 20mins earlier and feeding him before you leave. Is coming in at lunch
time a possibility? I found on the days I did work a full day I just could
not juggle it to not have to pop in at lunch time, fortunately I rarely
worked a full day and other full days he had at childcare, were me working
in the morning, then going to feed him, then going for an appointment or
something.

His day time need for milk will hopefully start to reduce soon, I think this
happened around 9 months for my first, he got to the point where he would
rather have it from source and he was happy just to have a solid snack in
the morning rather than a bottle.

Anne

jsco31 wrote:
Hello all. My original post here was thinking that maybe my supply was
dwindling, but I think that I am perhaps becoming resistant to the
breastpump. DS is almost seven months old and I have been back to work
since he was 12 weeks. I had one decrease in my pump output, and it is
happening again.

I was originally able to pump at least 12 -15 oz per day and that was
what he's being fed at daycare. For the last week or so I am lucky to
get 9 oz per day pumping.

I do not want to have to start supplementing him during the day while I
am at work, but my freezer stock is not that great.

Anyone had similar situations or have any thoughts?

Yes. I started drinking a glass of water about half an hour before
pumping and saw my yield increase by almost an ounce per session. It
could be coincidence, or just pure luck, but its not too much trouble
and certainly worth trying out.

PK.

"jsco31" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all. My original post here was thinking that maybe my supply was
dwindling, but I think that I am perhaps becoming resistant to the
breastpump. DS is almost seven months old and I have been back to work
since he was 12 weeks. I had one decrease in my pump output, and it is
happening again.

I was originally able to pump at least 12 -15 oz per day and that was
what he's being fed at daycare. For the last week or so I am lucky to
get 9 oz per day pumping.

I do not want to have to start supplementing him during the day while I
am at work, but my freezer stock is not that great.

Anyone had similar situations or have any thoughts?

I had a similar situation. I wasn't up to pumping extra time at home. I
could have pumped in the morning before nursing the baby and on weekends but
I had enough to do :-) Some people push solids to make up the shortfall.
Others reduce the amount in the bottles. I chose to supplement with formula
since my son liked his bottles and I felt formula was a better option then
other liquids. I don't have any regrets.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Thing One and Thing Two due 4/06

"jsco31" wrote in message
Thanks, Anne. Scheduling is a bit difficult for us. We live an hour
from where I work, with daycare in between. Going over lunch to feed
isn't an option. With the morning pumping, would you pump then feed? My
morning routine is ... feed DS as soon as he wakes up from one breast,
get ready and go to work and pump at around 9:30 - 10:00. This is my
more productive pump (generally 5-6 oz). I usually do a second pump
around 3:00 in the afternoon before leaving work, and pump again right
before I go to bed just to drain the breasts since he sleeps thru the
night now. His feeding schedule is ... upon waking (6:00 - 6:45 a.m.),
10:30, 2:30 - 3:00, 5:30 - 6:00 and then I nurse him to sleep around
8:00.

My personal routine would be wake up and feed baby, then shower, dress, get
breakfast etc. the sit down to pump, about 15 mins, then off to work. I'd
also suggest you try feeding both sides, then pumping both sides (do you
have a double electric?). I'd then not bother with pumping before you go to
bed, but leave what you do at work the same. It's the same number of pumps,
but you should hopefully find that it gets you a little bit more.


The early a.m. and two evening feeds I give with the other two being at
daycare.

fingers crossed it will be max a couple of months before that can be only 1
at daycare.

Any thoughts on how many oz. he should be taking right now? He gets
three meals of solids. Cereal and fruit for breakfast, vegetable and
fruit at lunch and cereal, vegetable and fruit at dinner.

huh, it really does vary so much, it's incredibly difficult to give an idea.
My DS peaked at 6oz in a bottle around 6-7 months, but then cut down.
Really, anything between 3oz and 8oz is probably normal!

I had also read somewhere that solely bf babies can go to cow's milk or
other instead of formula after six months. I am trying to avoid formula
if possible. Anybody have thoughts or info on that?

not sure what you mean, yes, they can have cows milk as a cooking
ingredient, what they shouldn't have is cows milk as a main source of
nutrition, it's just not complete enough, it hasn't got the right amounts of
the various vitamins and minerals. So in this instance, formula would be a
superior option than cows milk, providing it is made up correctly and is
sterile. Whilst I also don't want to give formula, you've got to think what
you are comparing it do, past 6 months, you could compare it do a dairy
product in terms of risks and if you can't meet the liquid needs with ebm,
it's the best alternative.

Cheers

Anne

"jsco31" wrote in message

With the morning pumping, would you pump then feed? My
morning routine is ... feed DS as soon as he wakes up from one breast,
get ready and go to work and pump at around 9:30 - 10:00. This is my
more productive pump (generally 5-6 oz).

Not Anne but when I was pumping for a stash I always pumped first thing in
the morning, before I fed the baby. It seemed to work fine and I got a lot
of milk doing that.

I usually do a second pump
around 3:00 in the afternoon before leaving work, and pump again right
before I go to bed just to drain the breasts since he sleeps thru the
night now.

You might experiement with pumping over your lunch break. For me that would
have yeilded more then the before bed pump.


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Thing One and Thing Two due 4/06

jsco31 wrote:

Thanks, Anne. Scheduling is a bit difficult for us. We live an hour
from where I work, with daycare in between. Going over lunch to feed
isn't an option. With the morning pumping, would you pump then feed? My
morning routine is ... feed DS as soon as he wakes up from one breast,
get ready and go to work and pump at around 9:30 - 10:00. This is my
more productive pump (generally 5-6 oz). I usually do a second pump
around 3:00 in the afternoon before leaving work, and pump again right
before I go to bed just to drain the breasts since he sleeps thru the
night now. His feeding schedule is ... upon waking (6:00 - 6:45 a.m.),
10:30, 2:30 - 3:00, 5:30 - 6:00 and then I nurse him to sleep around
8:00.

I would either pump before nursing him in the morning (at least one
side- you can play this by ear, if you pump both and then feed him and
he's very unsatisfied or fussy, you could just pump one side and feed
him off the other). Another option is to add in a noon pump session.



The early a.m. and two evening feeds I give with the other two being at
daycare.

Any thoughts on how many oz. he should be taking right now? He gets
three meals of solids. Cereal and fruit for breakfast, vegetable and
fruit at lunch and cereal, vegetable and fruit at dinner.

It varies alot. Mine was taking at most, 15 ounces (3 feeds) and this
was at 5 months. Once she started solids she cut way back (she also
nursed frequently during the night, so that's where she got her
breastmilk, yours is getting his during the day). By 10.5 months
she had given up the bottle all together, and I stopped pumping
at about 11.5 months or so.


I had also read somewhere that solely bf babies can go to cow's milk or
other instead of formula after six months. I am trying to avoid formula
if possible. Anybody have thoughts or info on that?


I had a friend who was having trouble keeping up with her son's
EBM intake, she chose to increase solids during the day so she
didn't have to do formula. I'm not sure I would have made
that choice. This is the kind of situation formula is made for.
If you can't keep up and need to supplement a little, then I'd
probably do that and stress about it.

The other thing you can do is take some galactagogues (sp?).
Some people have luck with fenugreek and eating oatmeal. Make
sure you are drinking plenty of water. I used to make sure
I had a glass of Traditional Medicine's Mother's milk tea in
early afternoon (around 1:30) and then I'd pump about 3 and
that really helped my afternoon output. Also, if you period is
returning, that could account for a supply dip.

Oh, and I think straight cow's milk, you should wait until 1 year.
Yogurt and cheese, around 9 months. Also, make sure day care
isn't over feeding him. Sometimes they'll just keep offering
milk when he could have been appeased with something else-
some distraction. The problem with this is if they cut back
on how much he's taking during the day, he may start waking at
night

Good luck!

Mary W.

"jsco31" wrote in message
oups.com...
I was originally able to pump at least 12 -15 oz per day and that was
what he's being fed at daycare. For the last week or so I am lucky to
get 9 oz per day pumping.

My most productive pumps were always first thing in the morning. Something I
can suggest is that if you're sitting there watching the clock or the pump,
read a book or play Civ4 or do something to distract you and let you relax.
If you stress over output, you'll drop it by stressing out.

Massaging works, too-I could usually get an extra ounce or two by massaging.
Warmth. If I wasn't warm enough, I wasn't letting down.

Umm....oatmeal, possibly. That helps too. On the offchance, check your
tubing, make sure it's not loose or nicked or something causing you to loose
a bit of suction.

If your cycle is returning, your supply will dip a bit too, from what I've
heard. Be prepared for that.

Jess

Thanks to all. Will try a few of these suggestions and see how it goes!

"Jess" wrote and I snipped:

Massaging works, too-I could usually get an extra ounce or two by
massaging.

I'll second this, along with all the other good ideas on this thread.
Kellymom calls it breast compression, which I used to really empty the
breast when pumping. She offers many great tips to increase your pumping
output:

http://www.kellymom.com/bf/pumping/p..._decrease.html

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
-Patty, mom of 1+2